USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1630 to 1855 > Part 10
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
CHAPTER IV.
CIVIL HISTORY.
THE Europeans took possession of different parts of America by the right of discovery ; and they entered upon lands, countries, and continents, under the claims of their sovereigns, and by special authority from them. The dis- coveries of John and Sebastian Cabot, Bartholomew Gos- nold, and others, were understood to give to James I. of England the coasts and country of New England. The king accordingly claimed, in the eighteenth year of his reign, the entire continent between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In that same year he granted to " the Council of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England in America," "all that part of America lying and being in breadth from forty degrees to forty-eight degrees of north latitude, and in length of and within all the breadth aforesaid throughout the mainland, from sea to sea," - "to be holden of him, his heirs, and successors, as of his manor of East Greenwich, in the County of Kent, in free and common socage, and not in capite, nor by knight's service ;" the grantees "yielding and paying therefor the fifth part of the ore of gold and silver which should happen to be found in any of the said lands."
Medford was included in the territory granted, Dec. 30, 1622, by the Plymouth Company to Robert Gorges. It was the tract, "commonly called or known by the name of the Messachusiack," lying " upon the north-east side of the bay called or known by the name of the Messachusett." It extended "ten English miles towards the north-east, and thirty English miles unto the mainland, through all the breadth aforesaid."
Hutchinson says that this grant, being loose and uncer- tain, was never used.
March 19, 1628: The Council of Plymouth, under their common seal, by a deed indented, granted and sold to Sir
RESIDENCE OF GEORGE L. STEARNS.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
Henry Roswell and five others "all that part of New Eng- land, in America, which lies and extends between a great. river there, commonly called Monomack (Merrimack), and a certain other river there, called Charles ; being in the bottom of a certain bay there, commonly called Massachu- setts."
These are the first grants, under legal authority, of the territory within which Medford stands. The Council also sold "all the lands being within the space of three English miles on the south of Charles River and Massachusetts Bay, and within the same space on the north of the River Monomack, and of all parts of said rivers and bay, and from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west." " Upon the petition of said Henry Roswell and five others, and their associates, twenty in number, to have and to hold to them, etc., by the same tenure, and incorporated them by the name of ' The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.'"
Holding under these grants and by these titles, the Gov- ernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay made grants of lands to companies and individuals for towns and planta- tions, usually annexing certain conditions to their grants ; such as, that a certain number of settlers or families should within a stated time build and settle upon the same, or that the gospel should be regularly preached, or a church gathered upon the granted premises. In this manner, forty- four towns were constituted and established within the Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies before the year 1655, without any more formal act of incorporation. Among the oldest are the following : Plymouth, 1620; Salem, 1629 ;. Charlestown, 1629; Boston, 1630; Medford or Mystic, 1630 ; Watertown, 1630 ; Roxbury, 1630 ; Dorchester, 1630 ;: Cambridge or Newton, 1633 ; Ipswich, 1634; Concord, 1635 ; Hingham, 1635; Newbury, 1635 ; Scituate, 1636; Spring- field, 1636; Duxbury, 1637 ; Lynn, 1637; Barnstable, 1639 ; Taunton, 1639; Woburn, 1642; Malden, 1649.
London, May 22, 1629: On this day "the orders for establishing a government and officers in Massachusetts Bay passed, and said orders were sent to New England."
Although, in the first settlement of New England, different sections of country were owned and controlled by "Companies " in England, yet the people here claimed and exercised a corporate power in the elections of their rulers and magistrates. This was the case with Medford.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
To show what form of government our ancestors in Med- ford recognized and supported, we subjoin the following records : -
"Oct. 19, 1630: First General Court of Massachusetts Colony, and this at Boston : Present, the Governor, Deputy-Governor, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Ludlow, Capt. Endicott, Mr. Nowell, Pynchon, Brad- street. Since their arrival here, the first form of their government was that of Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Assistants; the Patentees, with their heirs, assigns, and associates, being freemen .. But now, in this General Court, they agree on a second form, as follows ; proposed as the best course: For the freemen to have the power of choosing Assistants, when they are to be chosen; and the Assistants, from among themselves, to choose the Governor and Deputy-Governor, who, with the Assistants, to have the power of making laws, and choosing officers to execute the same. This was fully assented to by the general vote of the people and the erection of hands."
1643 : Massachusetts Colony had thirty towns, and was divided into four counties, - Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex.
1646: Selectmen were empowered to try causes in a town where the magistrate could not, or where he was a party.
The first mention of Medford in the public records of the Province is the following : -
"At a Court of Assistants at Charlestown, 28th Sept., 1630. It is ordered that there shall be collected and raised by distress out of the several plantations, for the maintenance of Mr. Patrick and Mr. Under- hill, the sum of £50; viz., out of Charlton, £7; Boston, LII; Dor- chester, £7; Rockbury, £5; Watertown, {11; Meadford, £3; Salem, £3; Wessaguscus, {2; Nantascett, {1.
It appears from the records that the inhabitants of Med- ford did not receive legal notice of their incorporation as a town till fifty years after the event. Wishing to be represented in the General Court, they petitioned for an act of incorporation, and were answered that "the town had been incorporated, along with the other towns of the province, by a 'general act' passed in 1630; and, under this 'act,' it had at any time a right to organize itself, and choose a representative without further legislation." Thus Medford was an incorporated town in 1630. The first representative was Stephen Willis, elected Feb. 25, 1684. The annual meeting was always held in February.
In the absence of early records, we are left to conjec- ture, from what afterwards appeared, what existed in the
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
earliest times. We therefore presume that the first set- tlers of Medford did as their neighbors did ; that is, organ- ized a municipal government, which should have the usual powers of levying and collecting taxes, opening and repair- ing roads, guarding the public interest, and securing the common peace.
The mode of "warning a town-meeting," in the early times, may be new to many of our day. It ran thus : -
To Mr. Stephen Hall, jun., Constable of Medford, Greeting: You are hereby required, in his Majesty's name, to warn the freeholders and other inhabitants of Medford to meet at their meeting-house, the first Monday of March next ensuing the date hereof, by eight o'clock in the morning, then and there to choose a constable, selectmen, town- clerk, and other town-officers, as the law directs. And all persons to whom the said town is indebted to bring in their accounts, and lay the same before the said town. And the town-treasurer for said Medford is hereby required to give said town at said meeting a particular ac- count of the disposing of the said town's money ; and whatsoever else may be needful, proper, and necessary to be discoursed on and deter- mined of at said meeting. Hereof you may not fail, as you will answer your default at the peril of the law.
Dated in said Medford, Feb. 14, 1702, in the fourteenth year of his Majesty's reign.
By order of the selectmen of said Medford. JNO. BRADSTREET, Town-clerk.
Among the oldest records existing, we have proof of what we have said, as follows : -
The first Monday of February in the year of our Lord 1677, Good- man John Hall was chosen constable by the inhabitants of Meadford for the year ensuing. Joseph Wade, John Hall, and Stephen Willis were chosen selectmen for ordering of the affairs of the plantation for the year ensuing. John Whitmore, Daniel Woodward, Jacob Chamber- lain, John Hall, jun., Edward Walker, Walter Cranston, Patrick Hay, Andrew Mitchell, and Thomas Fillebrown, jun., took the oath of fidelity. JOSEPH WADE, Town-clerk.
This was probably the simple organization of the civil government of Medford soon after our ancestors found themselves planted in their new homes. A more complex form of municipal agencies was not needed, especially as the celebrated Rev. James Noyes preached here a year, and established that church-discipline which, in those days, took care of everybody and every thing.
" March 8, 1631 : 'It is ordered that all persons whatsoever that have cards, dice, or tables in their houses, shall make away with them before the next Court, under pain of punishment.'"
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
" April 12, 1631 : 'Ordered, that any man that has a musket shall, before the eighteenth day of this month (and always after), have ready one pound powder, twenty bullets, and two fathom of match, under penalty of Ios. for every fault.' Absence from public worship, 5s. for each time."
To be a freeman was a high object with every man. Several of the inhabitants of Medford took the entire oath, and could therefore vote in the election of governor and assistants. At a session of the General Court, May 18, 1631, this remarkable vote was passed : -
" To the end the body of Commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it is likewise ordered and agreed, that, for the time to come, no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of the same."
In another record of the court we find this dictum, still more puritanical : " A freeman must be orthodox, a member of the church, twenty years old, and worth two hundred pounds." This was so far changed in 1645, that the Free- man's Oath could be administered to a man at the age of sixteen years, "the clause for the election of magistrates excepted."
It will interest the reader to know what the oath referred to was, and it is here presented :-
" Freeman's Oath. - I, - -, being by God's providence an inhabitant and freeman within the jurisdiction of this Commonweal, do freely acknowledge myself to be subject to the government thereof, and therefore do here swear, by the great and dreadful name of the ever-living God, that I will be true and faithful to the same, and will ac- cordingly yield assistance and support thereunto, with my person and estate, as in equity I am bound, and will also truly endeavor to maintain and preserve all the liberties and privileges thereof, submitting myself to the wholesome laws and orders made and established by the same ; and, further, that I will not plot nor practise any evil against it, nor consent to any that shall so do, but will timely discover and reveal the same to lawful authority now here established for the speedy prevent- ing thereof. Moreover, I do solemnly bind myself in the sight of God, that, when I shall be called to give my voice touching any such matter of this state wherein freemen are to deal, I will give my vote and suf- frage as I shall judge in mine own conscience may best conduce and tend to the public weal of the body, without respect of persons, or favor of any man. So help me God, in the Lord Jesus Christ."
In 1643 the Court "ordered, that, if any freeman shall put in more than one paper or corn for the choice of any officer, he shall forfeit ten pounds for every offence ; and any man that is not free, casting in any vote, shall forfeit the like sum of ten pounds."
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
The ballots used at elections were corns and beans : corns, yeas; beans, nays.
The conditions of voting in towns was fixed by the Gen- eral Court as early as April 17, 1729.
"Voted, that no person but what has been rated Is. at least, to the last province-tax more than the poll-tax laid in said town, shall be admitted to vote."
A regard for the rights of the Indians appears in many of the ancient records : -
" At General Court, held at Newtowne May 14, 1634, Mr. Thomas Mayhew is entreated by the Court to examine what hurt the swine of Charlestown hath done amongst the Indian barns of corn on the north side of Mystic ; and accordingly the inhabitants of Charlestown prom- iseth to give them satisfaction.
Laws to restrain intemperance were among the earliest acts of the first settlers. Nov. 5, 1639 :-
" Ordered, that every town have liberty, from time to time, to choose a fit man to sell wine to be drank in his house; provided, that if any person shall be made drunk in any such house, or any immoderate drinking suffered there, the master of the family shall pay for every such offence five pounds."
The lands of Medford were at first largely owned by non-residents ; and, because of this, much perplexity and dis- content arose among the tax-payers. Gifts of land within its boundaries had been made by the General Court to Mr. Cradock, and some, perhaps, to Messrs. Wilson and Nowell. If so, the taxes on these lands were paid by the last two gentlemen into the treasuries of the towns where they lived ; and therefore Medford could derive no profit from them. This mode of taxation became unpopular ; and the General Court passed the following law June 2, 1641 :-
" It is ordered that all farms that are within the bounds of any town shall be of the town in which they lie, except Meadford."
This partial piece of legislation bore very heavily upon the inhabitants of Medford. Complaint was made to the General Court ; and the first result was a declaration that Medford was "a peculiar town," unlike any other town in the county. But this did not redress the grievance com- plained of ; and on further petition they obtained, in 1684, an order that Medford " have power, as other towns, as to the management of all its prudentials."
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
To illustrate what direction the laws and regulations of Medford must have generally taken, it will be necessary to know those " one hundred laws " established by the General Court in 1641, and called "The Body of Liberties." These laws were drawn up by Rev. Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, and Rev. John Cotton of Boston, as the most competent men. To show the expansion of their minds and the soundness of their hearts, we will give here two or three specimens of those laws : -
"There shall never be any bond slavery or villanage." "If any good people are flying from their oppressors, they shall be succored." " There shall be no monopolies." "All deeds shall be recorded." " No injunction shall be laid on any church, church-officer, or member, in point of doctrine, worship, or discipline, for substance or circum- stance." "In the defect of a law in any case, the decision is to be by the word of God."
Notwithstanding the straitened condition of the people, they were doing a great work. They were wiser than they knew. By a fortunate neglect on the part of the mother- country, these distant colonists were shaping their local politics, strengthening their ancestral faith, enforcing their puritan customs, and nursing a spirit of national independ- ence.
April 21, 1693 : " The 'Orders and By-Laws' prepared for Medford were discussed, accepted, and 'allowed.'"
In the election of town-officers, they only could vote who had taken the " Oath of Fidelity;" which oath was in rela- tion to the town what the "Freeman's Oath " was in relation to the colony. It will be seen by the following record that their town-officers in Medford were few : -
" March 5, 1694: Caleb Brooks was chosen constable for the year ensuing. Major Nathaniel Wade, Lieut. Peter Tufts, and Stephen Willis were chosen selectmen. John Bradshaw and John Hall, jun., were chosen surveyors of highways. Ensign Stephen Francis was chosen tything-man. John Hall, sen., and Lieut. Peter Tufts, were chosen viewers of fences ; and Stephen Willis, town-clerk."
Nine persons were enough to fill all the offices in the town that year, including that of representative to the Gen- eral Court.
The first representative was elected in 1684. The candi- date was "to stand for and represent them in the session or sessions of the General Court or Assembly appointed to be begun and held at Boston, on the - day of May next." The salary voted him for his services was three pounds.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
In 1702 Mr. John Bradshaw was chosen treasurer ; and the office had become so responsible and onerous, that the town voted to make his salary ten shillings per annum ; and he was the first paid treasurer of the town.
Although the early records were brief, they were often marked by great precision, as we may see from the minutes of the town-clerk, March 17, 1702, recording the action of the town in reckoning with Ensign John Bradshaw. On that day, -
" At said meeting the town reckoned with Ensign John Bradshaw ; and there was due to him upon the balance of all accounts, both for work done for the town, and minister's board, from the beginning of the world unto this day, the sum of £16. 16s. Iod. Errors excepted."
May 7, 1705: Stephen Willis was objected to, " because he voted for himself." The idea of our forefathers touching taxing and voting was this, that no man should be allowed to vote on pecuniary affairs who held no pecuniary interest in the town in which he lived. To give a specimen of their jealous care, we transcribe the following. Twelve of the most respectable inhabitants of Medford, on the 4th of March, 1718, addressed the following memorial to the selectmen : -
" Gentlemen, - Our desire and petition to you is, that our town- meeting may be regulated according to law ; for we know that those men that made the law were wiser than we are, and therefore we the subscribers will by no means be the breakers of the same. And therefore, if our town-meeting be not regulated according to law, we must enter this as our dissent against it."
The selectmen replied with great promptness as fol- lows : -
" In answer to the desire and request of some of our inhabitants, that our town-meeting may be regulated according to law, we the subscribers have openly declared at said meeting, that those of our inhabitants, and only those, that are worth, or have in possession, to the value of twenty pounds ratable estate, may vote at said meeting."
" 1728: Mr. Peter Tufts, refusing to take the office of constable, paid in his money, as the law directs, to the town-treasury."
At a later period (1751), the town voted, that, if any one refused to take the office to which he had been elected, he should pay into the treasury £1. 6s. 8d., lawful money. In 1632 the people of Plymouth enact "that whoever refuses the office of Governor shall pay twenty pounds, unless he was chose two years going."
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
" March 4, 1754: Samuel Hall was chosen constable, and refused to serve ; and the town took up with five pounds, old tenor, inasmuch as he is a lame person."
In the early part of the eighteenth century the town appears to have been in a languishing condition. Its popu- lation and territory were small, and efforts were made to enlarge them by the annexation of adjoining precincts. In 1714 a committee was chosen to petition Charlestown on the subject of annexing certain districts. The petitioners ask " for some part of Charlestown adjoining to Medford, on the north side of Mystic River." The same year, having received, as is supposed, an adverse reply to that petition, they chose another committee to examine the Province Records, and see if Medford has any right to land lying in Charlestown, and, if so, to prosecute the same at the town's expense.
June 19, 1734 : Voted, that " the town petition the Great and General Court for a tract of the unappropriated lands of this Province, to enable the said town of Medford the better to support the ministry and the school in said town." A record of the reply is as follows : -
At a Great and General Court or Assembly for his Majesty's Prov- ince of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, begun and held at Boston, upon Wednesday, the 28th of May, 1735, and continued by several adjournments to Wednesday, the 19th of November following, -
20 May, 1735 : A petition of the inhabitants of the town of Med. ford, showing that the said town is of the smallest extent of any in the Province, and yet their town-charges extremely high, so that the main- tenance of ministry and school is very chargeable to them, and there- fore praying for a grant of some of the waste lands of the Province to be appropriated for the support of the ministry and schoolmaster in said town.
In the House of Representatives, read and ordered that the prayer of the petition be so far granted as that the town of Medford is hereby allowed and empowered, by a surveyor and chairman on oath, to survey and lay out one thousand acres of the unappropriated lands of the Province, and return a plat thereof to this Court, within twelve months, for confirmation for the uses within mentioned.
In Council, read and concurred. Dec. 29th : Consented to,
A true copy, examined : J. BELCHER.
THADE. MASON, Deputy Secretary.
Previously the town, because it was small, and heavily taxed, had asked for assistance from the General Court. And in 1721 that body voted £160; which sum the town
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
at once agreed to loan to its inhabitants in sums not to exceed ten pounds, nor to be less than five pounds, on interest at five per cent.
" April 25, 1728 : It was voted that the town of Medford will take out of the county treasury their part of the sixty thousand pounds granted by the Great and General Court."
When the town accepted the grant of land from the General Court, it appointed a committee, consisting of William Willis and Capt. John Hall, to see to the consum- mation of the matter ; and a choice of lands was made on the Piscataqua River, near the Merrimack. The tract em- braced one thousand acres, and it was called the "Town's Farm." It was not of great value, and was not kept by the town more than thirteen or fourteen years. Andrew Hall, Capt. Samuel Brooks, and Richard Sprague were made a committee to dispose of it ; but the amount they obtained does not appear on the existing records.
We give in this place another petition presented by Medford to the General Government, asking for additional territory : -
To his Excellency William Shirley, Esq., Captain-General and Gov- ernor-in-Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massachu- setts Bay, in New England, to the Honorable his Majesty's Council, and to the Honorable House of Representatives.
The petition of the inhabitants of the town of Medford, in the County of Middlesex, humbly showeth that there are certain tracts of land lying on the southerly and northerly sides of said Medford, which are bounded as follows; viz., the southerly tract, lying in Charlestown, is bounded northerly with Mistic or Medford River, westerly with the westerly bounds of Mr. Smith's farm, southerly with the southerly bounds of Mr. Smith's, Mr. James Tufts's, and Mr. Jonathan Tufts's farms, and then running from the south-easterly corner of said Jonathan Tufts's farm eastward straight to the westerly side of Col. Royal's farm, again westerly with the westerly bounds of Col. Royal's farm, again southerly with its southerly bounds, and then running from the south-easterly corner thereof, eastward, straight to Medford River.
The northerly tract, lying also in Charlestown, is bounded southerly with said Medford's northerly line and the southerly bounds of Mr. Symmes's farm, westerly with the line that divides Mr. Symmes's from Mr. Gardner's farm, northerly with Woburn and Stoneham lines, east- erly on Malden line.
Which lands, with their inhabitants, we pray may be added to the contracted limits of the said town of Medford, together with a propor- tionable part of the said town of Charlestown's rights and privileges, according to the quantity and circumstances of said lands : at least, those pieces of land, and the privileges, which are within the lands hereby petitioned for.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
And inasmuch as the said town of Charlestown has conveyed the land called the gravel-pit, with the marsh adjoining, containing about half an acre, that they used for getting gravel, laying timber, etc., for the southerly half of the bridge commonly called Mistic Bridge, and the "Causey" thereto adjoining, to Capt. Aaron Cleaveland and Mr. Samuel Kendal; for which consideration they have covenanted and agreed with the said town of Charlestown to keep the half of the bridge and the " Causey " aforesaid in good condition forever :
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